At the Forum of Social Entrepreneurship in Aktobe, Yeldar Zhumagaziyev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the "Atameken" NCE RK, spoke about the promising direction of activity on involving unemployed people in entrepreneurship. The forum is held on the initiative of akim of the region Berdybek Saparbayev and is rated for two days. The theme of the forum is "Partnership of the state, business and NGOs in solving social problems".

The largest event, called to establish effective cooperation between the state, business and non-governmental organizations in solving social problems, is taking place these days in Aktobe.

Representatives of state structures, international organizations, business and NGOs are invited to the dialogue platform, as well as public figures and experts in the field of social entrepreneurship from Kazakhstan, Israel, Turkey, Poland, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.

Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan Madina Abylkasymova, Vice Minister for Religious Affairs and Civil Society of the Republic of Kazakhstan Abzal Nukenov, member of the National Commission for Women, Family and Demographic Policy under the President of the RK, President of the Association of Business Women of Kazakhstan Raushan Sarsembayeva also took part in the event.

It is expected that the forum will resolve many issues related to the development of a new direction of entrepreneurship.

As Yeldar Zhumagaziyev noted in his speech, the Bastau project has a social orientation. The project was fully implemented by the "Atameken" NCE RK and was developed taking into account the shortcomings of the state programs of business training. It is aimed at identifying and developing the ability to entrepreneurial activities of the unemployed and self-employed people by teaching the basics of business and supporting their ideas for one year after training.

"The Bastau project is in great demand among the rural population. Only in the first year of implementation (2017) around 15,000 villagers were trained the basics of entrepreneurship. More than 8 thousand have defended their projects, 3,5 thousand have received financing and have opened or expanded their business. This year, additional credit funds amounting to 20 billion tenge are allocated for five thousand people. In the Aktobe region, the project covered 1125 inhabitants. Today the project gives real results. Yesterday's unemployed joined the ranks of businessmen, opened new workplaces. This is a real social direction, in which 60% of the activity is shown by women," - Yeldar Zhumagaziyev, Deputy Chairman of the NCE Board noted.

It should be noted that in 2016 in Mangystau and Aktobe regions "Bastau" was held in pilot mode. The second point of piloting the training format was the Temir district of the Aktobe region - the village of Shubarkuduk. Out of the 140 unemployed and beginning entrepreneurs who took part in the qualification testing, 60 were admitted to training. By the end of the classes, they independently developed business plans and defended them. As a result, six projects were financed for the amount of KZT 30.1 mln. Five of them were initiated by women who decided to open mini-greenhouses, produce pizza and confectionery products and provide medical services. Today their enterprises are successfully developing.

This year "Bastau" is held in all districts of the country's regions. It is planned to cover about 30 thousand people in the republic by training and to lead a minimum of 20 thousand villagers for the protection of business projects. Today "Atameken" aims to grow a new plead of business environment, to orient them to the needs of the region.

In this area, the NCE helds monitoring, the so-called screening for building "supply chains", Yeldar Zhumagaziyev said.

"In general, the social responsibility of business is very high. We found out, that last year businessmen spent 48 billion tenge on charity. Many of those who provide assistance to people in need do not suspect that the legislation has certain tax incentives and preferences: in the sum of the total amount not exceeding 3% of the taxable income to large taxpayers, to the rest - in the sum of the total amount not exceeding 4% of the taxable income. Also, not everyone wants and is ready to advertise their patronage. But we believe that such people need to be cultivated. As you know, last year a social project called "Atamekenim" was presented. The purpose of the action is to support the initiatives of the business to provide targeted charitable assistance," - Deputy Chairman of the NCE Board Yeldar Zhumagaziyev highlighted.​​​​​​​

Speaking about social entrepreneurship, he proposed to include some specific indicative in order to scale it up.

"We are ready to assist in this regard. I understand that "Bastau" itself is just an element of social entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, if we strengthen it and include the category of persons with special needs, they could, within the framework of Bastau, learn and open business objects. The second proposal touches upon the new "5 myn auylga, 5 myn kamkorshi" project, which emerges in the NCE. We urge businessmen to get involved in this project and act as patrons of villages, auls,"- Yeldar Zhumagaziyev voiced out.​​​​​​​

As an example, he cited the charity work of the well-known businessman, the chairman of the regional Council of Entrepreneurs of the Aktyubinsk region, the director of the "Altyn-Kyran" group of companies, the deputy chairman of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan Islambek Salzhanov. Maecenas sponsored the construction of a new local history museum in the city of Aktobe. And in his native Kobdinsky district, the businessman built a modern preschool center for 320 children, which he then transferred to the balance of local authorities.

"The Aktobe region has always been active and responsible. I want to believe that this time the resonance will be given from here," - he said.​​​​​​​

The experience of the Aktobe region proves that social entrepreneurship, solving important problems, gives businessmen the opportunity to earn, that is, everybody benefits: the businessman, the state and the population. This is evidenced by the fact that only in 2017 here, due to off-budget funds, 73 social projects worth 29 billion tenge were implemented.

Including, an ophthalmological hospital, an ambulance station, a martial arts palace, "Oner ortalygy" center, the Academy of Creativity, the "Zhubanovtar alemi" house-museum were built and put into operation. This year the region implements 33 projects with a volume of off-budget investments of 28 billion tenge. In particular, the Tennis Center, the Ice Palace, athletics track and arena facility, the "Analarga tagzym" house-museum, the children's rehabilitation center for the children with ICP, the Nuclear Medicine Center and others are being built in Aktobe

Akim of Aktyubinsk region, who took part in the forum, expressed active support to the proposals of "Atameken".

"We are working on active development of entrepreneurship - last year the number of active SMEs was 52 thousand, which is aided by strong state support. We relentlessly focus entrepreneurs on socially responsible behavior," - Berdybek Saparbayev said, emphasizing the special role of Aktobe women. - In the region, more than 40% of small and medium-sized enterprises are run by women, they are socially-oriented, and they also take an active part in supporting the "Tugan zher" program. For example, Zamzagul Baimagambetova built a kindergarten, the People's Chancellery, and now she is building a wedding palace. Rabiga Tasybayeva is putting up a year-round children's camp, physic-mathematical boarding school".​​​​​​​

Within the framework of the forum, there was an on-site presentation on the objects of social entrepreneurship.

Yeldar Zhumagaziyev as a member of a representative delegation visited the Training Center "Taksim Food Academy" under the "MK Corporation" LLP, which is included in the registry of the Center. The company has an extensive network of cafes and restaurants in several cities of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is why 100% of trainees are employed. Last year, 76 people were trained here in the direction of the Employment Center (cooks, waiters, barmen, cashiers, administrators). This year 12 people begun the training for cooks and 15 people for cashiers. There is a need for qualified personnel; the enterprise is ready to train more people.

It is worth noting that this year the regional commission on employment took into account the wishes of business and approached the financing of the project in a differentiated manner. For example, the amount for training cooks with a single sum of 24,048 tenge increased to 30,986 tenge, for seamstresses, the amount had risen from 24,048 tenge last year to 27,690 tenge.

Recall that entering the Register of Training Centers under the NCE RK "Atameken" enables the training centers under enterprises to receive funding for short-term vocational training in a facilitated format within the framework of the program for the development of productive employment and mass entrepreneurship. To date, according to the experts of the Human Capital Development Department of the RCE included 7 training centers of the Aktobe region in the Register.

Also on the first day of the international forum, a number of memorandums on cooperation were signed between enterprises and organizations of the Aktyubinsk region and organizations for the development of social entrepreneurship from Israel, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan.

So, within the framework of the forum, agreements on cooperation in several areas were reached. In particular, Aktyubinsk sewing enterprise Azaya LLP plans to interact with one of the brightest representatives of social entrepreneurship in Israel - Hashemechem. The best practices of this company are interesting to hundreds of Aktobe companies, so the parties intend to jointly develop and implement projects in the field of social entrepreneurship, to exchange their accumulated experience and information in a new sphere for Kazakhstan.

Association of non-governmental organizations of Aktyubinsk region and leadership of Kyrgyzstan's social entrepreneurship school undertake to organize and conduct short-term and long-term educational programs, trainings for social entrepreneurs and other segments of the population, as well as scientific and cultural events.

As participants of the forum noted, the main obstacles to the development of social entrepreneurship are low awareness of the population about social entrepreneurship, problems in conducting business, lack of a platform for exchange of opinions, etc.